Live From D.c.! It`s The Senate

June 2, 1986|United Press International

WASHINGTON -- The Senate goes on nationwide television today in an historic and possibly irrevocable change that will bring home the proceedings of what senators are fond of calling ``the world`s greatest deliberative body.``

The live coverage starts when the chamber convenes at 2 p.m. and C-Span, the cable network that already transmits House debate, planned to make Senate television available to 25 million American households -- one quarter of all those with TV sets.

Other networks will be able to select coverage for use on newscasts.

Despite dire warnings from critics of ``grandstanding`` and erosion of time-honored rules protecting extended debate, the Senate agreed Feb. 27 to permit on a test basis television and radio broadcasts of its floor debates.

After a month of closed-circuit in-house testing, Senate TV goes nationwide for a six-week live test before a July 29 vote on whether to make broadcasting permanent, or extend test coverage another 30 days before a final vote.

Senate radio coverage has been live and publicly available since May 1.

The Senate test period came seven years after the House first permitted public television and radio broadcasts of its proceedings.

Even critics of Senate TV concede that it is unlikely they can muster the votes to remove the cameras from the chamber, which in its earliest days barred citizens even from watching in person.

In agreeing to television, the Senate rejected sweeping rules changes that had been proposed to quicken the pace of its proceedings for viewers at home.

In the end, only one significant change survived -- a reduction to 30 hours, from 100, in the time allowed for debate, procedural moves and roll calls after the Senate has voted to end a filibuster.

Since the House does not convene until Tuesday, C-Span said all of its viewers will be able to see the Senate`s first day.